Sea surface conditions remotely sensed by upward-looking ADCPs
- Institut fuer Meereskunde, Kiel (Germany)
Surface data obtained from 153-kHz acoustic Doppler current profilers (ADCPs) deployed in the Greenland Sea at about 350-m depth during the winter of 1988/89 were investigated under several aspects. First a method is described to improve the instrument depth measurements using the binned backscattered energy profile near the surface. The accuracy of the depth estimates is found to be significantly better than 0.5 m. Further, improvements of wind speed estimates were found by using the ambient noise in the 150-kHz band in favor of the surface backscattered energy as suggested by Schott. Limitations of the ambient sound method at low wind speeds are presented when thermal noise overwhelms the wind-induced noise. Finally, a method to detect the presence of sea ice above ADCP is presented by cross correlating the surface backscatter strength and the magnitudes of all Doppler velocity components. The resulting time series of ice concentration are in overall good agreement with Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I) estimates but allow for higher temporal resolution. Further, in the vicinity of the ice edge, enhanced high-frequency ambient noise in the 150-kHz band was observed.
- OSTI ID:
- 53439
- Journal Information:
- Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology, Vol. 12, Issue 1; Other Information: PBD: Feb 1995
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune New River Estuary - Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) Results
Shelf sea current profile measurements from the sea surface to the sea bed in autumn